You Couldn't Ignore Me If You Tried: The Brat Pack, John Hughes, and Their Impact on a Generation (2010)

You Couldn't Ignore Me If You Tried is kind of a "biography" about John Hughes, the creative genius behind the best teen films of the 80's. But it's really about the movies themselves and the influence that Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Pretty In Pink, Some Kind Of Wonderful as well as other movies like St. Elmo's Fire and Say Anything had on both pop culture as well as those touched by them. It also goes into detail the lasting legacy they have had over the past 25 years.

Even though a lot of the book is devoted to John Hughes and his movies, a sizable portion is dedicated to both Joel Schumacher and Cameron Crowe, as both St. Elmo's Fire and Say Anything get dissected in ways I've never thought of before with a lot of background stories, which I found very interesting. But as the cover of the book alludes to, the majority is about John Hughes films.

I thought I knew most of the background stuff regarding pretty much all the movies associated with Hughes. Boy, was I ever wrong. The most revealing stuff had to do with Some Kind Of Wonderful and all the turmoil behind the scenes during the making of that movie. I never knew that Eric Stoltz and John Hughes almost came to blows during the first day on set during the table read.

The other eye opening info had to do with how Hollywood in a way "corrupted" Hughes. As he became more and more powerful in Tinseltown, he started to change, and not in a good way as he began to alienate those closest to him as his head began to get bigger and bigger. Even though we get a lot of dirt about the man, it's doesn't go into great detail about his life. I won't fault the book for this because it's about his movies and their impact and not about where he came from.

Also dissected is how the Brat Pack moniker came to come about and how it affected those saddled with that label and how careers and friendships were ruined because of it.

I may be a bit biased, but because I'm a huge fan of all his movies and enjoy reading about them, giving the book 5 Stars was easy.